Tuesday, May 07, 2013

A brutal weekend for the suddenly disintegrating Dodgers. Swept by the Giants, including two on walk-off home runs. Hanley Ramirez, just activated from the DL earlier in the weekend, landed back on it after straining a hamstring on Friday. Adrian Gonzalez didn't start any of the three games because of a stiff neck but pinch-hit on Sunday, so I guess his neck was OK for one at-bat but not four.

Meanwhile, Matt Kemp is still sitting on one home run, they've already used nine starting pitchers (rookie Matt Magill couldn't get out of the second inning on Saturday) and Sunday's lineup included Nick Punto, Juan Uribe, Luis Cruz and Dee Gordon. You're not winning anything with that group. Heck, Clayton Kershaw may ask for a trade not a contract extension.

As for Sunday's game, Matt Cain took a 4-0 lead into the eighth before tiring and walking Kemp and Uribe (who has suddenly developed the plate discipline of Ted Williams). The Giants' bullpen allowed all three of Cain's runners to score before finally closing the door on the 4-3 win. I'd say Cain finally looked like vintage Cain but, again, it wasn't much of a lineup he faced. The Dodgers are 13-17, they're second-to-last in runs scored in the National League, they're minus-27 in run differential and their best player isn't hitting. Right now, they're a bad baseball team, and showing no signs they have the talent to dig out of this.

David's got a slightly different perspective than we posted earlier. But again, injuries have kept the Dodgers from firing on even half of the cylinders we should have. Sure, last night's 9-2 whupping brings our losing streak to five games (not even the longest losing streak so far this short season!), but I don't think it's time to freak out just yet.